NATHAN Arnold looks set to be handed his Grimsby Town debut tonight – alongside a trio of trialists.
Arnold is likely to make his first appearance for the Mariners against Doncaster (7pm), having only joined on a season-long loan over the weekend.
But the Cambridge United forward won't be the only new face for those in the Blundell Park crowd to cast their eyes over.
As well as existing trialists Joe Ironside and Chris Clay, striker Jon-Paul Pittman will also be hoping to impress after joining up with the squad yesterday in the hope of earning a deal.
Reacting to the capture of Arnold, Hurst told the Telegraph that the 26-year-old has all the attributes he'd been looking for.
"I think when he was at Alfreton, he really stepped up and impressed a lot of people," he said.
"He's a player that can play left, right or through the middle, so he gives me a lot of options and that's good when you're not carrying a massive squad.
"He played a lot of times for Cambridge last season – albeit quite a few of them were from the bench – but he wants to nail down a starting place here and that's good for competition in the wide areas.
"He's another one with pace and that's what defenders don't enjoy playing against.
"At the same time, he's good enough on the ball to mean that, if you try and negate his pace, he can still beat you with his skill.
"He's got good assets for an attacking player and I'm glad to have him on board.
"He'll play a part tonight and it's the first chance the fans will have of seeing him a Town shirt, so I'm looking forward to seeing him in action."
Hurst continued: "Tonight is also another chance for the lads we've got on trial to impress and now we've also got Jon-Paul with us.
"He only trained with us for the first time yesterday but he looked intelligent – that's the first thing I noticed.
"He's got experience and he talks well, which really helps.
"He holds the ball up well and looks powerful and strong, so I'm looking forward to seeing him tonight.
"There's no getting away from the fact that he hasn't played as much football as he would have liked in the past few seasons.
"That's for a couple of reasons, one being injuries and the other not being any fault of his own.
"It'll be good to see him in action tonight and we'll have him with us for a little longer after that – we'll see where that takes us.
"There's no 'definites' on it – he'll play tonight and hopefully we can have another look on Friday."
